Wireless location assisted zone guidance system incorporating a multi-zone containment area

ABSTRACT

Individual zones are defined within a multi-zone assisted guidance region by storing a zone GPS data point target width, assigning GPS data points located within a perimeter and within the target width to a second zone, allotting GPS data points located interior of and distinct from the second zone and within the target width to a first zone; and finally ascribing unassigned GPS data points located interior of and distinct from the first zone to a safe zone. If there is not enough total width between perimeter points in a region to provide all zones at the target width, a data point width of more exterior zones are preferentially electronically maintained at the target width and more interior zones are reduced or eliminated. In addition, adjacent guidance zones have unique stimulation that acts through different neurological access channels to provide behavioral guidance to an animal.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S.provisional 61/954,584, filed Mar. 17, 2014, and is also acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/217,390,filed Mar. 17, 2014, which in turn claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C.119(e) of U.S. provisional 61/801,509, filed Mar. 15, 2013, the contentsof each which are incorporated herein by reference in entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

This invention pertains generally to electrical communications, and moreparticularly to condition responsive indicating systems with a radiolink and including personal portable device for tracking location. Thecondition responsive indicating systems of the present invention monitorthe specific condition of humans or animals. In one preferredmanifestation, a fully self-contained collar designed in accord with theteachings of the present invention monitors the location of a pet suchas a dog, and provides a plurality of zones within which well definedand positive stimulus are provided to train the pet to stay within apredetermined area.

2. Description of the Related Art

Dogs are well known as “man's best friend” owing to the many beneficialservices that they provide. However, and likely since mankind firstbefriended dogs, there has existed a need to control the territory thata dog has access to. There are many reasons that motivate this need,many which may be relatively unique to a particular dog or owner, andother reasons that are far more universal.

Irrespective of the reason, there have been limited ways to communicateto a dog a territory that the dog should stay within, and to elicit thisbehavior from a dog. One method is a fixed containment structure such asa fence or building. A structure of this nature provides a physicalboundary or barrier which blocks passage of an animal such as a pet orfarm animal. As may be apparent, such structures are typically expensiveand time consuming to install, and necessarily static in location. Inother words, they are only useful at the location where they areconstructed, and so are of no value when a pet and owner travel.Furthermore, these static structures often interfere in other ways withother activities of the dog owner, such as with lawn care or interferingwith the owner's movement about a property. In addition, a dog may findways to bypass the structure, such as by digging under a fence orslipping through a not-quite completely secured gate.

A second approach to controlling accessible territory is through acombination collar and leash or similar restraint. The leash is anchoredto a fixed point, or in the best of situations, to a line or cable alongwhich the dog can travel. Unfortunately, most dogs are notoriously badat untangling or unwrapping a leash from a fixed object. Consequently,dogs tend to tangle the leash about trees, posts and other objects, andcan become completely unable to move. If the owner is not aware that thedog has become tangled, this can lead to dangerous situations in casessuch as extreme weather or when the dog has been left unattended for anextended period.

Additionally, some dogs are very good at escaping the leash, such as bybacking away from the leash and using the leash force to slip off thecollar, or by chewing through the leash. Once again, if the owner isunaware, the dog may travel from the desired area into other unsuitableareas such as roadways and the like. This may put both dog and humans injeopardy, such as when a vehicle swerves to avoid the dog or when a doghas a temperament not suited to the general human population.

The leash also necessarily defines the region in which the dog maytravel. For exemplary purposes, with a ground stake and a leash the dogis constrained to a circle. In this example, the owner will typicallydefine the circle to the smallest radius that the dog may desirablytravel within. As can be understood, for all but circularly shapedareas, this leads to a great deal of space that the dog cannot access,but which would otherwise be suitable for the dog.

In consideration of the limitations of static structures and leashes,various artisans have proposed other systems that provide moreflexibility and capability, such as buried or above ground transmitterantennas and radio collars that either detect the crossing of a buriedline or detect the reception or absence of reception of a signalbroadcast by the transmitter antenna. When an undesirable location isdetected, the radio collar is then triggered, typically to provide apainful electrical stimulation to the dog. Desirably, the electricalstimulation is mild enough not to harm the dog, but yet still strongenough to cause the dog to want to avoid additional similar stimulation.These systems remove the physical link between a dog and a staticstructure, meaning the dog will not get tangled in obstacles when movingabout. Further, in the case of a buried line, the line may follow anygeometry of land, and so is not limited to a circular pattern limited bya particular radius.

Unfortunately, burying a line can be difficult or impossible if thereare other objects, such as irrigation systems, buried utility lines,landscaping, hard surfaces, trees, or other fixed objects. Additionally,current soil conditions such as frozen soil or snow-covered ground inthe winter may also limit the ability to bury the line. Furthermore, theeffort required to bury the line limits these systems to a singlelocation, meaning the system cannot readily be moved or transposed fromthe home to a popular park or the like.

Radio systems that rely upon the detection of a signal to generate ashock, such as the buried line, are also well known to be significantlyaffected by static and other forms of Electro-Magnetic Interference orRadio-Frequency Interference (EMI-RFI). Consequently, a dog may beshocked or otherwise punished without basis or appropriate reason. Thisproblem is also very location dependent, meaning that there are placeswhere there is so much EMI-RFI that a radio system is completelyunusable. As a result of the inability to completely eliminate orsubstantially eradicate the effects of EMI-RFI, the use of these radiosystems is far from universal.

When the shock is instead triggered by the absence of a radio signal,such as when a beacon is used to contain a pet, obstacles such asbuildings may prevent reception, undesirably limiting the range oftravel of the animal. Furthermore, blocking the signal from the collar,such as when a dog lays down, is being caressed by the owner, or isoriented in the wrong direction, may also lead to radio signalattenuation and undesirable triggering of the shock.

As is known in the field of psychology, this random punishment that iscommonplace in both types of radio systems can literally destroy thetraining of a dog, and may lead to erratic or wanton misbehavior.Instead, many dog owners continue to rely upon static structures orleashes to control the territory accessible by their dog.

Another problem arises when a dog unintentionally crosses a buried line.Since it is the crossing of the line that leads to the stimulation, evenwhen the dog realizes and tries to return, the same stimulationoriginally keeping the dog in a containment area is now being used tokeep the dog out of that containment area. Consequently, the dog will beextremely confused, and will commonly not return, even where the dogwould have otherwise. As but one exemplary purpose, when a rabbit,squirrel, or other animate creature is being chased by the dog, the dogwill typically be so intent on the pursuit as to completely lose trackof the location of the buried line. The dog's speed may be so great thateven the stimulation is very short as the dog crosses the buried line,in the heat of the chase. Furthermore, the dog's attention and focus arethoroughly directed at the pursuit of the animate creature, and even themost powerful stimulus may go unnoticed. However, once the chase isover, the dog's adrenaline or drive has diminished. A reasonablywell-behaved dog will then most likely be moving more slowly back toward“home” within the containment area. Unfortunately then, the stimulationtrying to re-enter will most frequently be of much longer duration, andmuch more recognized by the now not-distracted dog, than when the dogleft the containment area. As can be appreciated, this is backwards ofthe intent of a training system.

With the advent and substantial advancement of Global PositioningSystems (GPS), presently primarily used for navigation, artisans haverecognized the opportunity to incorporate GPS technology into petcontainment. Several systems have been proposed in the literature forseveral decades, but these systems have not as yet become commerciallyviable.

One significant limitation of prior art GPS systems is the accuracy ofthe system. Accuracy can be dependent upon variables such as atmosphericvariations, signal reflections and signal loss due to obstacles, andvariability intentionally introduced into the system. Similarvariability is found in various radio and cellular locating systems.

A GPS or similar navigation system that is accurate to plus or minus tenmeters is very adequate for navigational purposes, for example to guidea person to a commercial building for a meeting or for other commerce.However, for pet containment this level of accuracy is completelyunacceptable. For exemplary purposes, many residential yards are fortyfeet wide, or approximately 10 meters. A system that is only accurate toplus or minus ten meters might try to locate the dog in eitherneighbor's yard on any given day or at any given moment, depending uponunpredictable and uncontrollable variables such as atmosphericconditions. As will be readily appreciated, this unpredictable locatingwill lead to punishment of the animal when, in fact, the animal iswithin the proper location. In turn, this will lead to a completefailure of training, and erratic and unpredictable behavior of theanimal.

Another limitation is the amount of calculation required to determinewhether the pet is within a selected area of containment. Most prior artGPS systems use nodes to define the perimeter, and then mathematicallycalculate where the pet is relative to the nodes. Unfortunately, thisrequires a substantial amount of computation, which increases greatly asthe number of nodes are increased. As a result, these systems commonlyrely upon a primary processing system that is remote from the dog, towhich the dog's collar is coupled via radio waves or the like. Thispermits the primary processing system to perform calculations and thenrelay results or control signals back to the collar. Undesirably, thisalso adds complexity, drains precious battery power limiting the usablecollar time, and again makes the containment system dependent uponconventional radio communications systems. In addition, the need forboth the collar and a secondary base station makes the system far lessportable. This means, for example, that taking the dog away from home toa park may be impractical.

A further limitation of the prior art is battery life. A collar thatmust be removed and recharged every few hours is unacceptable for mostpurposes. Unfortunately, the intensive computations required by priorart systems require either a fast and consequently higher powerprocessor unit, or a communications link such as a radio link to a basestation. While the collar unit may transmit data back to the base unitto avoid the need for complex computational ability, even thetransmission of position information and reception of collar actionsrequires a reasonably powered radio. It will be apparent thatwalkie-talkies, cell phones and other hand-held radio devices all havevery large batteries to provide adequate transmission and receptionlife, and yet these devices often only support several hours ofcommunications. As can be appreciated, size and weight are severelyrestricted for a device fully self-contained on a dog's collar, and theinclusion of a large battery is undesirable.

Yet another limitation of the prior art is the unintentional blocking orloss of GPS signals. There are a number of conditions that can lead toloss of GPS signals. One is unfavorable weather, which can lead to aseverely attenuated satellite signal, and much higher Signal to NoiseRatios (SNR). Another condition is an adjacent building, canyon wall, orother obstacle that blocks satellite signals. Such a signal might, forexemplary purposes, either block all signals such as commonly occurswithin a building, or instead may only block signals from one direction.However, GPS systems require multiple satellites to obtain a positionfix, and even if only one of the satellites is blocked, then the abilityto accurately fix position may be lost. Another situation that can leadto signal loss is when the collar itself is covered. This can, forexemplary and non-limiting purposes, occur when a dog lays down. If thedog lays in an unfortunate position partially or completely covering thecollar, then satellite signals will be either blocked or too severelyattenuated.

In any of these situations where the GPS signal is partially orcompletely blocked or attenuated, the latitudinal and longitudinalpositional accuracy will either be inadequate, or may be completelylost. In such instances, a prior art collar may become completelynon-functional. Worse, this loss of function can occur without notice inan erratic manner, possibly causing severe harm to the training of thedog.

In addition to the aforementioned limitations, prior art electronicfences have also attempted to train the animal using punishment, such asa shock, to elicit the desired behavior. As is very well known andestablished, negative reinforcement is less effective than positivereinforcement or a combination of positive and negative reinforcement.Furthermore, the type of reinforcement can also affect the temperamentof the animal. This need for aversive treatment is, at least in part,believed to be due to the equally harsh construction of a boundary. Theprior art structural fence evolved into an electronic fence thatprovided a harsh and distinct border which the animal was never supposedto cross. However, the natural instincts of many animals are to wanderand explore. This harsh border provides little or no warning to anexploring animal, and, as noted herein above, this border may even movewith respect to a fixed land location. The combination can literallydestroy the psychological well-being of the animal. Consequently, it isdesirable to not only provide consistent behavioral reinforcement, butalso to provide that reinforcement in a positive manner.

The following patents and published patent applications are believed tobe exemplary of the most relevant prior art, and the teachings andcontents of each are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No.4,393,448 by Dunn et al, entitled “Navigational plotting system”; U.S.Pat. No. 4,590,569 by Rogoff et al, entitled “Navigation systemincluding an integrated electronic chart display”; U.S. Pat. No.4,611,209 by Lemelson et al, entitled “Navigation warning system andmethod”; U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,000 by Eberhardt, entitled “Automaticguided vehicle system”; U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,782 by BeVan, entitled“Fixed curved path waypoint transition for aircraft”; U.S. Pat. No.5,067,441 by Weinstein, entitled “Electronic assembly for restrictinganimals to defined areas”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,341 by Gouard et al,entitled “System for sea navigation or traffic control/assistance”; U.S.Pat. No. 5,351,653 by Marischen et al, entitled “Animal training methodusing positive and negative audio stimuli”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,744 byCuster, entitled “Animal control apparatus”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,511 byHatano et al, entitled “Position monitoring for communicable anduncommunicable mobile stations”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,129 by Boardman,entitled “Wireless pet containment system”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,934 byKass, entitled “Portable locating system”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,956 byQuigley, entitled “Method and apparatus for controlling animals withelectronic fencing”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,329 by Tanner, entitled“Vehicle location method and system”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,119 bySchipper et al, entitled “Arrestee monitoring with variable siteboundaries”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,904 by Ben-Yair et al, entitled “Aircombat monitoring system and methods and apparatus useful therefor”;U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,425 by Ladner et al, entitled “Locator device”; U.S.Pat. No. 5,751,612 by Donovan et al, entitled “System and method foraccurate and efficient geodetic database retrieval”; U.S. Pat. No.5,791,294 by Manning, entitled “Position and physiological datamonitoring and control system for animal herding”; U.S. Pat. No.5,857,433 by Files, entitled “Animal training and tracking device havingglobal positioning satellite unit”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,100 by Marsh,entitled “Fenceless animal control system using GPS locationinformation”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,199 by Farkas et al, entitled“Pressure sensitive animal training device”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,350 byGirard et al, entitled “Location method and apparatus”; U.S. Pat. No.6,043,748 by Touchton et al, entitled “Satellite relay collar andprogrammable electronic boundary system for the containment of animals”;U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,957 by Westrick et al, entitled “Pet locatorsystem”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,640 by Durst et al, entitled “Pet locator”;U.S. Pat. No. 6,232,880 by Anderson et al, entitled “Animal controlsystem using global positioning and instrumental animal conditioning”;U.S. Pat. No. 6,232,916 by Grillo et al, entitled “GPS restraint systemand method for confining a subject within a defined area”; U.S. Pat. No.6,236,358 by Durst et al, entitled “Mobile object locator”; U.S. Pat.No. 6,263,836 by Hollis, entitled “Dog behavior monitoring and trainingapparatus”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,757 by Touchton et al, entitled“Satellite animal containment system with programmable Boundaries”; U.S.Pat. No. 6,313,791 by Klanke, entitled “Automotive GPS control system”;U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,001 by Durst et al, entitled “Object locator”; U.S.Pat. No. 6,441,778 by Durst et al, entitled “Pet locator”; U.S. Pat. No.6,480,147 by Durst et al, entitled “Portable position determiningdevice”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,487,992 by Hollis, entitled “Dog behaviormonitoring and training apparatus”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,518,919 by Durst etal, entitled “Mobile object locator”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,137 by Oakman,entitled “Portable electronic multi-sensory animal containment andtracking device”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,546 by Dalland et al, entitled“Animal containment system having a dynamically changing perimeter”;U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,492 by Touchton et al, entitled “Satellite animalcontainment system with programmable boundaries”; U.S. Pat. No.6,748,902 by Boesch et al, entitled “System and method for training ofanimals”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,903,682 by Maddox, entitled “DGPS animalcontainment system”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,923,146 by Kobitz et al, entitled“Method and apparatus for training and for constraining a subject to aspecific area”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,034,695 by Troxler, entitled “Large areaposition/proximity correction device with alarms using (D)GPStechnology”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,259,718 by Patterson et al, entitled“Apparatus and method for keeping pets in a defined boundary havingexclusion areas”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,328,671 by Kates, entitled “System andmethod for computer-controlled animal toy”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,677,204 byJames, entitled “Dog training device”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,155,871 by Lohiet al, entitled “Method, device, device arrangement and computer programfor tracking a moving object”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,115,942 by Thompson etal, entitled “Traveling invisible electronic containmentperimeter—method and apparatus”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,624,723 by Troxler,entitled “Position and proximity detection systems and methods”; U.S.Pat. No. 8,757,098 by So et al, entitled “Remote animal training systemusing voltage-to-frequency conversion”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,797,141 by Bestet al, entitled “Reverse RFID location system”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,839,744by Bianchi et al, entitled “Mobile telephone dog training tool andmethod”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,851,019 by Jesurum, entitled “Pet restraintsystem”; 2007/0204804 by Swanson et al, entitled “GPS pet containmentsystem and method”; 2008/0252527 by Garcia, entitled “Method andapparatus for acquiring local position and overlaying information”;2011/0193706 by Dickerson, entitled “Sensor collar system”; 2012/0000431by Khoshkish, entitled “Electronic pet containment system”; 2013/0127658by McFarland et al, entitled “Method and apparatus to determineactionable position and speed in GNSS applications”; and EP 0699330 andWO 94/27268 by Taylor, entitled “GPS Explorer”.

In addition to the foregoing, Webster's New Universal UnabridgedDictionary, Second Edition copyright 1983, is incorporated herein byreference in entirety for the definitions of words and terms usedherein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a first manifestation, the invention is a wireless location assistedmulti-zone guidance system. The system includes a housing and anelectrical power source contained within the housing. At least oneanimal stimulation apparatus is electrically coupled with the housingand powered by the electrical power source. A wireless locationdetermination apparatus is contained within the housing, powered by theelectrical power source, and adapted to operatively generate electricallatitude and longitude information representative of a current positionof the housing. An electrical processor is coupled to the wirelesslocation determination apparatus and is operative to receive electricallatitude and longitude information therefrom. Memory is included that iselectrically accessible by the processor. A data table is stored in theelectrically accessible memory and uniquely locates a plurality ofguidance zones defined using the latitude and longitude information,each one of the plurality of guidance zones having an associated uniqueset of characteristics used by the processor to provide behavioralguidance stimulation to the animal through the animal stimulationapparatus and including at least a safe zone, a first alert zone, and asecond alert zone. The electrical processor is adapted to operativelycompare received electrical latitude and longitude information to thedata table to generate a first represented current position within thedata table, to read a value from within the data table, and adapted tovary an output of the at least one animal stimulation apparatusresponsive to the read value.

In a second manifestation, the invention is a method of definingindividual zones within a multi-zone assisted guidance region having atleast a perimeter, a safe zone interior of the perimeter, a second zoneadjacent to the perimeter, and a first zone adjacent to the safe zone.In accord with the method, a zone GPS data point target width iselectronically stored. GPS data points located within the perimeter areelectronically calculated. GPS data points located within the perimeterand within a number of GPS points of the perimeter approximately equalto the zone GPS data point target width are electronically assigned tothe second zone. GPS data points located interior of and distinct fromthe second zone and within a number of GPS points of the second zoneapproximately equal to the zone GPS data point target width areelectronically allotted to the first zone. Unassigned GPS data pointslocated interior of and distinct from said first zone are electronicallyascribed to the safe zone. For each of the individual zones calculated,if there is not enough total width between perimeter points in a regionof the assisted guidance region to provide all zones at the zone GPSdata point target width, a data point width of more exterior zones arepreferentially electronically maintained at the zone GPS data pointtarget width, and more interior zones are reduced or eliminated.

In a third manifestation, the invention is a wireless location assistedmulti-zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training andmanagement of an animal. The system comprises a wireless locationdetermination apparatus. At least one animal stimulation apparatus isoperative to generate non-aversive stimulation including auditorystimulation, vibratory stimulation, and transcutaneous electrical nervestimulation. A processor is coupled to the wireless locationdetermination apparatus and operative to receive latitude and longitudeinformation therefrom and coupled to the at least one animal stimulationapparatus and adapted to operatively control a generation ofstimulation. Memory is coupled with and accessible by the processor. Adata table is stored in the memory as a two-dimensional array having afirst index adapted to operatively represent an ordinate and having asecond index adapted to operatively represent an abscissa. A pluralityof geographically defined guidance zones are operatively stored in thedata table, a first one of the ordinate and abscissa corresponding tolongitude and a second one of the ordinate and abscissa corresponding tolatitude, respectively, with each value stored in the data tableidentifying a one of the plurality of geographically defined guidancezones. The processor is adapted to operatively receive latitude andlongitude information from the wireless location determinationapparatus, retrieve a value stored in a location in the data table usingthe longitude information as the first array index and latitudeinformation as the second array index, and use the retrieved value todetermine a one of the plurality of guidance zones that the latitude andlongitude information from the wireless location determination apparatusis associated with, and provide behavioral guidance stimulation selectedfrom said auditory stimulation, vibratory stimulation, andtranscutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, the particular stimulationtype selected responsive to said guidance zone determination.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention solve inadequacies of theprior art by providing a lookup table. In a most preferred embodiment ofthe invention, the table is defined by rows and columns that are mappedto ordinate and abscissa data points representing predefined geographiclocations. Each data point offset in the table corresponds to apredefined geographic offset. Each datum point in the table stores avalue indicative of a particular one of several guidance zones. Eachguidance zone has an associated set of characteristics used to providebehavioral guidance to an animal. The determination of the guidance zoneis made by determination of the present location using GPS or equivalentsignals. Identification of the corresponding table location is made bycalculating the latitudinal and longitudinal offsets from a referencepoint, and using these offsets as the two indices for a double-indexedarray. The value retrieved from the double-indexed array identifies theguidance zone. Based upon either or both of collar location history andthe desirability value returned from the table, a variety of actions maybe triggered within the collar, such as providing appropriate stimuli.The stimuli are transitioned through the multiple zones, ensuring agradually stepped transition, and may use a variety of neurologicalaccess channels.

The present invention and the preferred and alternative embodiments havebeen developed with a number of objectives in mind. While not all ofthese objectives are found in or required of every embodiment, theseobjectives nevertheless provide a sense of the general intent and themany possible benefits that are available from ones of the variousembodiments of the present invention.

A first object of the invention is to provide a safe and humaneapparatus for modifying the behavior of a pet. From the descriptionsprovided herein and the teachings incorporated by reference hereinabove, it will be apparent that the present invention may also beapplied in certain instances to humans, livestock or other animals. Asecond object of the invention is to provide a fully self-containedapparatus that will determine location and provide stimuli based uponthat location for extended periods of operation. As a corollary, thefully self-contained apparatus is preferably operational withuniversally available location systems, including but not limited tosatellite GPS, cellular telephone triangulation systems, and radiotriangulation system such as Loran, but may alternatively be providedwith a custom location system if so desired. By using universallyavailable location systems, there is no limit on the locations where theapparatus may be used. Another object of the present invention is toenable simple and efficient set-up and operation by a person. A furtherobject of the invention is to efficiently and expeditiously train a pet,to significantly reduce training time and increase the effectiveness ofthe training. As a corollary, embodiments of the present invention willpreferably provide the effective animal training while preserving thespirit and positive attitude of the animal. Yet another object of thepresent invention is to enable a person to set an acceptable area or“safe zone” using only the self-contained apparatus, and to adjust orredefine the area again by simple manipulation of the self-containedapparatus. An additional object of the invention is to enable theself-contained apparatus to automatically generate a number of zonesthat facilitate positive training and behavior modification, and therebyguide a pet or other living being appropriately. A further object of theinvention is to incorporate a variety of stimuli that access theanimal's neurological system through different pathways or channels tobetter gain the attention of the animal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, advantages, and novel features of thepresent invention can be understood and appreciated by reference to thefollowing detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art property such as might be mapped inaccord with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a map of numerical values visually overlaid onto andelectronically associated with the property of FIG. 1, in accord withthe teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates the map of numerical values of FIG. 2, but absent theproperty illustrations.

FIG. 4 illustrates the map of numerical values of FIG. 3, divided intofour distinct tiles and including a latitude and longitude referencepoint associated with each tile.

FIG. 5 illustrates the upper left tile or quadrant taken from the map ofnumerical values of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 illustrates a preferred embodiment method for establishing andoperating a multi-zone containment area, the method designed in accordwith the teachings of the present invention

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In a preferred embodiment designed in accord with the teachings of thepresent invention, a pet owner might want to train a pet to stay withinan example property 1 such as that illustrated in prior art FIG. 1. Anouter limit of the property 2 may encompass one or more buildings 3, adriveway 4, and a mailbox 5. If, for exemplary purposes, the pet is orwill be trained to walk with the owner to the mailbox, or to retrievethe newspaper from adjacent to the mailbox, then the owner may wish toprovide a small peninsula 6 which could extend beyond the bounds of theparticular property location.

A self-contained collar apparatus, which might for exemplary purposesand not solely limiting thereto resemble that illustrated by Swanson etal in 2007/0204804 and incorporated by reference herein above, willpreferably contain the necessary electronic components such asillustrated in the Swanson et al FIG. 5, including components to receiveand decipher location determining signals and also preferably containingboth volatile and non-volatile memory. In the preferred embodiment, thelocation determining signals are converted to latitude and longitudereferences, though any suitable coordinate reference representative of ageographic area may alternatively be used. Human interaction interfaces,such as switches and a display will also preferably be provided, againsuch as illustrated in the Swanson et al published patent application,to allow a person to interact with the collar apparatus. Other requisitecomponents, both as described in Swanson et al and as will be understoodfrom the following description, will also be provided therein.

To establish a new area, a person will interact with the self-containedcollar apparatus switches or other suitable input apparatus to identifythat a new assisted guidance region is to be recorded. Next, the personwill transport the self-contained collar apparatus around the perimeterof the land area, such as by following outer limit 2. During thistraverse of the outer limit 2, the self-contained collar apparatus willrecord discrete location points which have been traversed, and add thoseto a table stored in a memory within the collar. Once the outer limit 2has been traversed, the person will again interact with theself-contained collar apparatus to identify that the outer limit hasbeen traversed, or, if so enabled, the collar will automatically detectthat an area has been completely circumscribed.

Next, the micro-controller or other suitable processor will preferablyautomatically convert this outer limit 2 into a table 10 of values suchas illustrated for exemplary purposes in FIG. 2. The embodimentsdisclosed herein may be implemented with a general purpose processor, adigital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or otherprogrammable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discretehardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform thefunctions described herein. A general purpose processor may be amicroprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be anyconventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. Aprocessor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices.

While the numerals 0-3 are used therein for the purposes of the presentillustration, any suitable designations, whether numeric or not, may beused. As but one example, the numerals 0-3 represent four choices, andso may easily be represented by two bits of data. In such case, thepossible combinations are binary 00, 01, 10, and 11. Furthermore, thepresent invention is not limited solely to four choices, and any numberof choices, including both more and fewer than four, determined by adesigner to be appropriate for the apparatus that is otherwise generallycompliant with the remainder of the present description will beunderstood to be incorporated herein.

While FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate an exemplary outline of an area that thepet owner might wish to contain a dog within, which is a subset of thetotal property, the area can be of any geometry, and in the example issomewhat irregular.

In the preferred embodiment, a number of different zones are definedbased upon the traversal of outer limit 2 during initial setup. The areabeyond outer limit 2 is defined by an “out-of-bounds” zone 11represented by a numerical value of zero at each discrete location.Immediately inside of the zero-value locations is a zone of locationsassigned a numerical value of one. This will be referred to herein asthe “second alert zone” 12. Between “out-of-bounds” zone 11 and “secondalert zone” 12 in FIG. 2, a dashed line 13 has been drawn forillustrative purposes. This line does not actually exist in the storeddata table, but instead helps to better illustrate the various zonesthat are defined by the various location values.

A plurality of discrete locations relatively inward from the secondalert zone 12 are assigned a numerical value of two, and represent a“first alert zone” 14. Again, for the purpose of illustration only, adashed line 15 is shown separating first alert zone 14 from second alertzone 12. Again, and like line 13, this line 15 does not actually existin the stored data table, and is provided solely for illustrativepurposes.

Finally, an innermost “safe zone” 16 preferably intentionallyencompasses the largest area of all zones and is populated with discretelocation values assigned to equal the numerical value of three. Dashedline 17, like lines 13 and 15, indicates the separate zones, but doesnot exist in the stored data table.

As is evident when comparing FIGS. 1 and 2, line 13 correspondsapproximately to outer limit 2. Due to the discrete nature of theresolution of the particular position determining system, such as a GPSsystem, the points defined during the traversal of outer limit 2 may ormay not exactly correspond to the land location. In addition, since theouter limit 2 may not be linear, and may instead include a number ofirregularities such as peninsula 21 and slightly cropped corners 23 and26 referenced in FIG. 3, the data points more interior but generallyadjacent to these irregularities will have variability in theirassociated geometries relative to that of the outer limit 2. So, andagain for exemplary purposes, peninsula 21 is too narrow to provide forthe as-illustrated exemplary two data point width provided for eachzone. Nevertheless, there is a single data point of numerical value 2protruding at reference numeral 22 illustrated in FIG. 3. Consequently,as outer limit 2 was traversed at set-up, a dog may reach the base ofmail box 5, which is located at this single data point of numericalvalue 2 at reference numeral 22, without receiving a second alertstimulus. Nevertheless, the dog will still receive a first alertstimulus such as a vibration. Similarly, the intricacies of notchedcorner 26 are lost as the corner becomes a simple square corner atreference numeral 27 of FIG. 3. Likewise, the elaborate stepping ofcropped corner 23 fades some to simpler corner 24, and becomes a verysimple single curve at more interior corner 25.

Also strictly for the purpose of illustration, and not limiting theinvention solely thereto, two GPS location points are used as the widthof each of the first alert and second alert zones. Consequently, in theembodiment as illustrated, each of these first alert and second alertzones are calculated to be approximately two GPS points in width. Itwill be understood herein that the width of the alert zones may bepredetermined to be more or less than the exemplary and illustrated twodata points. Furthermore, the number of alert zones may be varied fromthe two zones that are illustrated.

While the alert zone areas are, in fact, two data points wide, the widthof the alert zones at sharp transition points, such as corners, may begreater or less than two data points in width. The particular decisionsfor how to shape interior zones will be determined by algorithms chosenor written by a designer at design time. Furthermore, there may be timeswhere assisted guidance zones may take on a very irregular shape. Thiscan occur, for exemplary purposes, when there is a narrow peninsulabetween two larger safe zones. When there is not sufficient room for thepredetermined number of alert zone location points, such as withinpeninsula 21 of FIGS. 1 and 2, in the preferred embodiment the datapoint calculations still begin with the second alert zone value adjacentto the “out of bounds” area. This presents consistent operation near theborders, and provides more consistent training, which is consideredherein to be very important to more quickly training an animal.

As may be apparent, a person may choose where to traverse in order tocontrol the formation of various zones. As an example, a person tryingto create a larger buffer adjacent a high traffic road would, whensetting up the collar zones, simply walk an outer limit farther from theedge of the road. This maintains more consistent alert zone widths,which is believed to offer better training for an animal than varyingthe width of the alert zones. Nevertheless, and alternatively, it iscontemplated herein to allow a person, the system, or the collar to varythe width of alert zones to correspond with various objects or hazardssuch as fences, gardens, and roadways.

FIG. 3 illustrates the data table 10 representation of the land area ofFIG. 1, but without the land features shown. FIG. 3 simply shows thelatitudinal and longitudinal plot of the shape of the assisted guidancezones, as defined by the numerical values stored in data table 10. Inaccord with the present invention, a latitude and longitude land map isconverted to and saved as an X-Y plot or table of points, where one axis(in this case the rows) represents latitude and the other axis (in thiscase as illustrated, the columns) represents longitude. Each point isthen assigned a numerical value that is representative of a zone withinthe assisted guidance region.

These points may for exemplary purposes and in accord with the preferredembodiment, correspond to specific points of geographic latitude andlongitude determined to a particular degree of resolution. The degree ofresolution may typically be the limit of precision available for aparticular location system, such as six decimals of precision in a GPSsystem. So, as represented in FIG. 4, the latitude and longituderepresentations are presented to six decimal precision, though othersuitable levels of precision are considered incorporated herein.

Noteworthy herein is the fact that the data points do not correspond toan exact measure in feet or inches. Instead, and as known in theindustry of mapping, a single second of longitude at the equator is theequivalent of approximately 101 feet. In contrast, a single second oflongitude at sixty degrees north latitude, which is approximately thelocation of Oslo, Norway; Helsinki, Finland; and Anchorage, Ak.; is onlyapproximately 51 feet. Taken to the extreme, at the north and southpoles, a second of longitude is zero feet. For prior art systemsattempting to calculate distances in feet or inches, this deviation oflongitudinal distance as the collar moves away from the equatordrastically increases the complexity of calculations required. Incontrast, the present invention directly associates GPS data points withzones, and disregards the distance in feet or inches that this may beequivalent to.

In the illustration of FIG. 4, reference point 41 may for examplerepresent a point at 44.925866 degrees latitude, and −92.940617longitude. Reference point 42 may represent a point at 44.925673 degreeslatitude, and −92.940617 longitude. Reference point 43 may be used torepresent a point at 44.925673 degrees latitude, and −92.940160longitude. Reference point 44 may be used to represent a point at44.925866 degrees latitude, and −92.940160 longitude. While asillustrated these reference points 41-44 are shown slightly offset fromand intermediate between the various data points, they may instead beselected to correspond exactly to a particular data point in table 10.

As may be appreciated, for a given amount of latitude and longituderesolution, the larger a tile is, the more memory is required to storethe tile. In other words, if the GPS data point resolution wererepresentative of five foot increments across the surface of the earth,it would only take twenty of these increments to cover a one hundredfoot property boundary. For a square property of 100 feet by 100 feet,there would only be a total of 400 data points within the outerboundary. Even with the inclusion of data points outside of theboundary, this property could easily be mapped with a thousand datapoint tile.

In contrast, using this same five foot resolution, a large property suchas a large ranch, farm, park, or the like would require more than onemillion points to map. As may be appreciated, this requires one thousandtimes the tile size to save the entire assisted guidance region within asingle tile in memory, or one thousand times the available memory.

Storage of data table 10 requires memory, and a suitable electronicsystem within the collar will not be provided with unlimited memorywithin which to store data points. The particular type of memoryselected is well within the level of skill of a designer of portabledevices using micro-processors, micro-controllers and the like, and theinvention is not limited to a single or particular type of memory. Inaccord with a preferred embodiment of the system, the memory will bedivided into some combination of slower non-volatile memory andrelatively faster but volatile RAM. The slower, non-volatile memory forexemplary but non-limiting purposes might comprise well-known flashmemory. If the device uses higher speed memory such as RAM to reduceoperation time, and there are more data points than available space inRAM to store table 10, the preferred embodiment processor will analyzethe table and set up one or more tiles in RAM to be used during systemoperation.

To cover the exemplary property of FIG. 1, the numerical representationof FIG. 4 incorporates a total of four distinct “tiles” or squares thatcontain these numerical representations. FIG. 5 provides a zoomed-inview of only one of these four tiles, the top left tile of FIG. 4. Usingthis preferred numerical representation substantially reduces thecalculations required when compared to the prior art.

In an exemplary operation, the latitude-longitude location of a dog isdetermined through the GPS system as is known in the field ofnavigation. This is then used to determine which tile, plurality oftiles, or single numerical representation is required to determine theposition of the dog. If the tile containing the particular latitude andlongitude is not already loaded into RAM, then it will be loaded. Thisdetermination will be easily made by comparing the current latitude andlongitude to the reference points such as points 41-44 to select theappropriate tile(s). Then, preferably and for exemplary purposes, asimple RAM access may be made, where the RAM memory location iscalculated based upon the present latitude and longitude offset from thelower-left latitude and longitude found on the numerical representationtile. This lower-left corner may be understood to be the referencelocation for the tile, such as reference point 41 in the illustration ofFIG. 5. While any point within a tile may be used as a referencelocation, the lower-left is illustrated for exemplary purposes.

The offset determination is a simple subtraction of the referencelocation, such as reference point 41 of FIG. 5, from the currentlydetermined location. Then, this difference is used as the table index,to directly address the particular table location. In the preferredembodiment, each data point is stored in memory using a double-indexedarray, with each of the two indices of the array uniquely representingone of the latitudinal or longitudinal offset from the reference point.For exemplary purposes, this may be written asArrayName[latitude-offset][longitude-offset]. Each unique[latitude-offset] [longitude-offset] may for exemplary purposes point toa unique location in memory where the zone value associated with thatgeographic location is stored.

In an alternative embodiment, the offset may be additionally convertedin a proportional or scalar calculation, where a particular number ofdegrees of latitude, for example, are known to equal one data pointshift to the right in table 10. This requires storing the scalarconversion and an extra scalar calculation to look up the data value fora location, both which may be undesirable for some applications.

Once the offset is calculated, then the memory location is queried andthe contents of the memory are returned in the form of a numerical valuefrom 0-3, the meaning which represents whether the dog is comfortablywithin the safe zone (“3” in the preferred embodiment), or is in thefirst alert (“2” in the preferred embodiment), second alert (“1” in thepreferred embodiment), or out-of-bounds zones. After GPS location isdetermined, the only calculation required during operation of the dogcollar to determine whether the collar is within an assisted guidancezone is the calculation of offset in latitude and longitude from thereference point in the lower left corner of the tile. This is a veryrapid and easy calculation, followed by a near-instantaneous read of thememory contents. In the preferred embodiment then, all numericalrepresentation calculations are performed at the time the outer limit isdefined, and then these numerical representation tiles are saved,preferably in non-volatile memory such as within EEPROM, flash memory,or equivalent storage. Saving in non-volatile memory allows the storedmap to be used at a later date, even if the battery should fail in theinterim.

The procedure used to clear a map from memory is also quite simple inthe preferred embodiment. Once the user selects the map to delete, theassociated tiles in memory are simply rewritten to numerical values ofzero; or simply deleted from a directory of memory or a file allocationtable; or otherwise deleted as known in the field of computing.

When the collar is in use for pet containment, the numericalrepresentation tiles may be swapped into and out of active memory asrequired. This means that storage of diverse locations does not requirestorage of every location in between. So, for example, storage of twodistinct one acre maps on opposite sides of the earth does not requirestoring millions of acres of maps. Instead, only those tiles associatedwith a latitude and longitude actually used by a map are required to bestored in memory. Again, while the use of tiles is not essential to theoperation of the present invention, the ability to create these tilesmeans that with only very modest amounts of memory and processingcapability, the present invention may be used to map one or a pluralityof assisted guidance regions literally anywhere on earth.

There may be times where the assisted guidance region takes on a veryirregular shape, forming a narrow peninsula between two larger safezones. This is illustrated in exemplary FIG. 6. When there is notsufficient room for the predetermined and constant zone width, such aswithin the peninsula of FIG. 6, the data point calculations begin withthe second alert zone. If possible, there will be the predetermined datapoint width calculated for each zone. In the illustration of FIG. 6,this was possible for the second alert zone. Next, the data points arecalculated for the first alert zone. In the example of FIG. 6, there isnot sufficient space between the upper and lower narrowed regions of thepeninsula to create two zones of two data point width. As a result, theremaining available space through the peninsula is created as a firstalert zone. Note that this means there is no safe zone space in thenarrowed portion of the peninsula. In turn, this means that a dog maymove from point A to point B without any hindrances. However, movingfrom safe zone point B to safe zone point C cannot be accomplishedwithout passing through the first alert zone. As may be appreciated, theformation of particularly narrow peninsulas may, in fact, result in thecutting off of areas that would otherwise be available for the pet, orat least a requirement that the pet traverse an alert zone. Such is thecase for FIG. 6, where a pet must traverse the first alert zone to movefrom point B to point C, and will not be able to pass to point C in thesafe zone. In the preferred embodiment, the width of the outermost zonesare maintained, rather than proportionally reducing the width of all ofthe zones. If there is not enough total width between opposed perimeterpoints in a region of the containment area to provide all zones at thepredetermined data point width, the inner zones are slighted or removedentirely. In the peninsula region of FIG. 6, the safe zone is removedentirely, and the alert zone is reduced in the narrow peninsula. This isdesired because the pet will most preferably know and recognize theapproximate width of each zone where the pet receives feedbackreasonably accurately. Otherwise, for a less desirable proportionatewidth zone arrangement where each zone remains equal to the other zonesin width, to the pet the training regimen might appear to beunpredictable and random.

A number of other features may also desirably or optionally beincorporated into a preferred embodiment pet assisted guidance system.Using the teachings of the present invention, the collar may be designedto contain an entire and independent pet assisted guidance system. Inother words, no additional components would need to be purchased oracquired, nor is there a need for any other external device other thanthe GPS satellites. The collar will preferably interact directly withGPS signals received from GPS satellites, and may for enablement use acommercially available set of components to determine latitude andlongitude.

Desirably, the accuracy of the GPS determinations may be significantlyimproved by incorporating a loosely coupled inertial navigation systeminto the collar. The inertial navigation system may then be used tovalidate GPS readings, and may also be used to discard outlier positioninfo such as might be produced sporadically. For exemplary purposes,when an inertial system indicates no movement of the dog and a GPS orequivalent determination indicates a sudden multi-meter jump, then thedata point indicative of a sudden multi-meter jump can be discarded orignored. Likewise, tracking movement of the collar in combination with acompass within the collar may be used to determine what direction oftravel is in a forward direction. Dogs do not run backwards.Consequently, if the GPS determination indicates a sudden reversal ofdirection without an associated reversal of direction by the compass,then this may also be discarded or ignored.

An inertial system or biometric system may also optionally be used topre-alert dog state and predict sudden location changes. This can beused to be more pre-emptive at alerting the dog of impending boundaries.Exemplary biometric indicators might be heart or respiration rates, andan exemplary inertial indicator might be a sudden head lifting ormovement.

Inertial, biometric and location-based indicators may further be used tocontrol the frequency of GPS position calculation, which in turn isrelated to the average power consumption and battery life. So, forexemplary purposes, if the collar is in a dwelling, the GPS may bedeactivated. Similarly, if inertial and/or biometric indicators suggestthat the dog is sleeping, the sampling rate may be substantially lessfrequent, if at all, until the dog wakes up. Additionally, when the dogis within the safe zone, the sampling rate may also be less frequent.

When desired, a remote control interface or external device may also beprovided, but such device is not mandatory. Where such an interface isprovided, assisted guidance regions may also be communicated from anexternal computing device such as a cellular telephone or various othermobile or fixed computing devices. In such case, the collar unit willpreferably be provided with a local wireless interface. The localwireless interface may be of any suitable type, including but notlimited to Bluetooth™, cellular, or other type of radio or alternativecommunications link.

These assisted guidance regions may at least in some cases be calculatedwithout requiring a person to first walk the perimeter. While not solelylimited thereto, this can be particularly helpful at popular places suchas at dog parks or other public places that might be frequented by manypet owners. In such case, a map already created for the park may beprovided and may, for exemplary purposes, be downloaded from an Internetlocation through a smart phone, computer or other computing device. Themap may be directly forwarded to the collar, or may be edited within thecomputing device and then forwarded. Additionally, with such aninterface a user might draw an assisted guidance area perimeter or evenvarious zones upon an electronically stored map and transmit them to thecollar.

As aforementioned, there will preferably be multiple zones in theassisted guidance region such as the “safe”, “first alert”, and “secondalert” zones to train and shape the behavior of an animal such as a pet,so that appropriate behavior may be rewarded, thereby improving trainingeffectiveness and success. A very preferred aspect of the presentinvention is the careful rewarding of good behavior, and guiding theanimal to the safe zone. This is most preferably accomplished in anentirely non-aversive manner. For exemplary purposes, a comfortingstimulus may be provided at particular time intervals to assure orreassure a dog within the safe zone 16. Furthermore, such stimulus maybe timed in accord with activity of the dog, such as when the dog ismoving about and remaining within safe zone 16. For exemplary purposesand not solely limiting thereto, a comforting tone or recorded soundsuch as the owner's voice saying “good dog” may be periodicallygenerated.

In one embodiment contemplated herein, the velocity of the dog,including direction and speed, will also be calculated, by using thedifference of the current and previous positions over time. In the eventthere is a danger of the dog moving outside of the safe zone, the firstalert zone 14 stimulus may be applied, until the dog is confirmed to beremaining in safe zone 16, whereby the comforting stimulus may beapplied.

The first alert zone 14 assigned with a numeric value of “2” may be usedto generate a vibration which is preferably very distinct from thecomforting tone or “good dog” recording of safe zone 16. This vibrationwill preferably gently alert the dog of the transition out of safe zone16 and to the need to return thereto. Furthermore, this first alert zonevibration may be varied in both intensity and frequency when desired,for exemplary and non-limiting purposes such as to be furtherrepresentative of such factors as proximity to adjacent zones, directionof travel, and speed of travel. The purpose of the first alertstimulation is not to invoke pain in any way, or to provide anypunishment. Consequently, a gentle vibration or distinct tone ispreferred. The purpose is simply to catch the attention of the dog andcommunicate to the dog that the dog has left the safe zone, so that thedog can elect to move back into the safe zone. This first alert isprovided in real time, so that the dog will understand the purpose ofthe alert.

An important feature of the present invention is the detection of atleast one indicator of the direction of travel of the dog, and whetherthat direction of travel is indicative of progress toward returning tothe safe zone. For exemplary purposes only, and not solely limiting thepresent invention thereto, these indicators might include one or more ofthe following: sequential GPS position determinations indicating a shiftof position toward the safe zone; a compass indication of a directionalshift toward the safe zone; an inertial sensor detecting a directionchange toward the safe zone; or other suitable indication of direction.In an alternative embodiment, the indicators might also include intentof direction by the animal. When the dog is outside of the safe zone andthe indicator of direction of travel indicates movement toward the safezone, the safe zone stimulus will most preferably be provided. In thepreferred embodiment, this may be a short sounding of the safe zonetone, for exemplary and non-limiting purpose, to reward the animal formoving toward the safe zone. Once back in the safe zone, the dog willagain receive positive reinforcement from the safe zone stimulation asdescribed above.

The second alert zone 12 assigned with a numeric value of “1” may beused to trigger a low level electrical impulse stimulation or otherstimulation different from that of the safe zone and first alert zonestimulation. Once again, this stimulation will very preferably notgenerate pain, but instead will provide a distinct stimulation. Tactilestimulation is used in the preferred embodiment, with the desire toincorporate communications through a sensory pathway different from theauditory stimulation of the safe zone.

Noteworthy herein is that electrical impulse stimulation is well knownin the medical, veterinary, and biological sciences, and can be variedfor a particular intent. A weak stimulation may be unnoticeable. As thestrength of stimulation is increased, there may be a gentle tingle. Aneven stronger stimulation can cause mild muscle contraction, and withenough strength, there can be a painful stimulation. For exemplarypurpose, Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is used inthe treatment of humans explicitly as a technique to alleviate pain,rather than to cause pain, and electric current is likewise used inwound healing and tissue repair. Consequently, for the purposes of thepresent invention, this second alert zone stimulation will be understoodto be detectable by the animal, while remaining below the threshold ofpain.

The purpose of this second alert zone stimulation is, just as with thefirst alert zone stimulation, to gain attention of the dog, communicatethe impending boundary, and to give the dog the opportunity to return tothe safe zone. By making the stimulation different from the first alertzone, this second alert zone stimulation will also clearly provideproper notice to the dog of the impending boundary. This notice isprovided in real time, so that the dog will understand the purpose ofthe notice.

Most preferably, if electrical impulse stimulation is used in the secondalert zone, the stimulation will be provided using technology such asillustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 7,677,204 incorporated by reference hereinabove, which is considered to be a most humane method of application.Nevertheless, and while much less preferable, other known techniques forelectrical impulse stimulation will be considered herein as alternativeembodiments. Furthermore, this second alert zone electrical impulsestimulation may be varied in both intensity and frequency when desired,for exemplary and non-limiting purposes such as to be furtherrepresentative of such factors as proximity to adjacent zones, directionof travel, and speed of travel. As with the first alert zone, in thesecond alert zone when an indicator of direction of travel indicatesmovement toward the safe zone, the safe zone stimulus will be provided.

Finally, a numeric value of “0” designates a point outside of the secondalert zone. In this case, the dog may be stimulated with a strongerelectrical impulse stimulation. However, this stimulation will mostpreferably not continue indefinitely, which will be recognized to bequite aversive. In the foregoing description, time is described as onefactor for calculating when to discontinue electrical impulsestimulation. Preferably, in addition to time, the direction of travel ofthe dog will also be considered. As soon as the dog starts moving towardthe safe zone, electrical impulse stimulation will be discontinuedirrespective of time outside of the safe zone. Instead, in the preferredembodiment positive feedback such as a safe zone or similar stimulus isprovided when the dog is moving in a direction back toward the safezone. If instead the collar unit detects movement away from the safezone, the collar unit will deliver a second alert zone stimulus to thedog. In the preferred embodiment, this second alert zone stimulus is amedium electrical impulse stimulation selected to provide tactilestimulation that does not invoke pain. If the collar unit detectsmovement that isn't getting closer or further away, it delivers the“first alert” vibration to the dog. In this manner, the dog iscontinually and immediately rewarded for movement toward the safe zone,is reminded through auditory stimulation for indeterminate movement, andreceives tactile stimulation for movement away. The dog will thereby bedirected back into the safe zone. As the dog is crossing back into thesecond alert zone from the “out of bounds” zone, the collar unit willpreferably combine the comforting tone of the safe zone with a mediumlevel vibration until the dog is in the safe zone. At that time, thecollar unit will revert from this wayward dog shepherding mode back tothe initial containment mode. This allows appropriate pet behavior to berewarded, thereby improving training effectiveness and success.

The use of auditory stimulation in the safe zone, vibratory stimulationin the first alert zone, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulationin the second alert zone is most preferred, since each stimulationcommunicates with a dog through a different neurological access channel.If for one reason or another a dog is non-responsive to a particularneurological access channel, then the sequencing of access channels willbe much more likely to gain the dog's attention, even when attention isotherwise difficult to garner. With the use of this preferredsequencing, the stimulation is most preferably selected and designed tobe entirely non-aversive. Other known forms of stimulation that areoperative through a unique neurological access channel when compared toother stimulation used in an embodiment of the invention, and mostpreferably which are non-aversive, will be understood to be incorporatedherein as well. One non-limiting example is the use of light, such as abright light or flash, to garner the animal's attention.

In an alternative embodiment, adjacent zones may alternate betweendifferent neurological channels, and so for exemplary and non-limitingpurposes only, the safe zone and second alert zones may incorporate anauditory stimulation, while the first alert zone and out-of-bounds zonesmight incorporate a vibratory stimulation. While not communicatingthrough as many neurological pathways as the preferred embodiment, thisalternating approach offers advantage over the use of a singleneurological channel. Likewise, when a larger number of zones are used,a designer may elect not to attempt to provide a unique neurologicalchannel for every zone, and may instead still preferably use differentneurological channels for adjacent zones.

Noteworthy herein is the understanding that while these diverseneurological channels help to better communicate with an excited dog,this does not mean that a non-aversive system will have only gentlestimuli. It will be appreciated herein that an excited animal will notsense stimuli as well as a calm animal. In an excited state, manyanimals have much greater pain thresholds and many will also mute sensesthat are not a part of the cause of the excited state. In other words, adog who has smelled a rabbit may not hear or feel ordinary sensations,and will only feel a gentle sensation during the excited state thatmight, in a calm state, be perceived as aversive. Consequently, thestrength or level of the various stimuli may also be designed to factorin the level or expected level of excitation of the animal at the timeof stimulation. This may include biometric or inertial sensing as well,such that a dog in the heat of a chase may receive a stronger stimulusthan a dog slowly ambling about.

While the present invention illustrates three zones within an assistedguidance region, the safe zone, first alert zone, and second alert zone,the present invention is not solely limited to a particular number ofzones within an assisted guidance region, or a particular way torepresent those zones. The numerical representations from zero to threeare preferred, but any other representations that may be machine storedare contemplated herein. However, the present invention automaticallyconverts a walked perimeter into the zones, and avoids altogether theconstruction of a fence or border such as shown in the prior art, andthe disadvantages associated therewith.

This zonal configuration is very consequential when compared to thoseprior art containment systems that include calculations of borders anddistance from a border. In particular, and as evident from the presentfigures, the distance from the “out-of bounds” zone will vary dependingupon the alignment of the particular GPS data points used to define thepresent assisted guidance region. This distance is irrelevant to thepresent invention, and instead the stimuli are determined based upon thepresence within a particular zone. For exemplary purposes, this meansthat if each data point is representative of five feet on the ground,then a two data point width first alert zone of the present inventionwould provide the animal the same stimulus through the entire ten footzone. In turn, this enables the substantially reduced processing of thepresent invention compared to that of the prior art.

Furthermore, the area outside of the assisted guidance region, assigneda value of zero, is still referred to herein as the “out-of-bounds”zone. This is because, in the present invention, the process ofproviding encouragement and direction to an animal continues outside ofthe assisted guidance zone, and in fact can occur anywhere at all. Inother words, at the time of design, a designer must decide whether toenable the possibility of all land area on earth to be incorporated intothe out-of-bounds area, or whether a limit will be set on how far areasonable distance is beyond which the assisted guidance zone will beentirely ignored.

While the preferred embodiment table 10 has been described herein aboveand illustrated in FIGS. 2-4 for the purposes of enablement ascooperative with a self-contained collar apparatus such as thatillustrated by Swanson et al in 2007/0204804, it should be apparent thatthe table 10 incorporating discrete values representative of variouszones may be used with other apparatus such as found in many otherpatents incorporated herein by reference above and other systems, aswill be understood and appreciated by those skilled in the art.

While the foregoing details what are felt to be the preferred andadditional alternative embodiments of the invention, no materiallimitations to the scope of the claimed invention are intended. Thevariants that would be possible from a reading of the present disclosureare too many in number for individual listings herein, though they areunderstood to be included in the present invention. For exemplarypurposes only, and not solely limiting the invention thereto, the words“dog” and “animal” have been used interchangeably herein above. This isin recognition that the present invention has been designed specificallyfor use with dogs, but with the understanding that other animals mayalso be trained using apparatus in accord with the teachings of thepresent invention. Consequently, the present invention is understood tobe applicable to other animals, and the differences that will berequired of an alternative embodiment designed for animals other thandogs will be recognized based upon principles that are known in the artof animal training. Further, features and design alternatives that wouldbe obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art are considered to beincorporated herein. The scope of the invention is set forth andparticularly described in the claims herein below.

We claim:
 1. A method of defining individual zones within a multi-zoneassisted guidance region having at least a perimeter, a safe zoneinterior of said perimeter, a second zone adjacent to said perimeter,and a first zone adjacent to said safe zone, comprising the steps of:electronically storing a zone GPS data point target width;electronically calculating GPS data points located within saidperimeter; electronically assigning to said second zone a first subsetof said GPS data points that are located within said perimeter and thatare also within a number of GPS data points of said perimeterapproximately equal to said zone GPS data point target width;electronically allotting to said first zone a second subset of said GPSdata points located within said perimeter that are unassigned subsequentto said electronic assigning step and that are also located interior ofand distinct from said second zone and within a number of GPS datapoints of said second zone approximately equal to said zone GPS datapoint target width; electronically ascribing unassigned and unallottedGPS data points located interior of and distinct from said first zone tosaid safe zone; whereby for each of said first and second zonescalculated if there is not enough total width between perimeter pointsin a region of said assisted guidance region to provide said first andsecond zones at said zone GPS data point target width, a data pointwidth of said second zone is electronically maintained at said zone GPSdata point target width and a data point width of at least one zoneinterior to said second zone is reduced.
 2. The method of definingindividual zones within a multi-zone assisted guidance region of claim1, further comprising a step of electronically associating with each ofsaid safe zone, second zone and said first zone a unique set ofcharacteristics to provide behavioral guidance stimulation.
 3. Themethod of defining individual zones within a multi-zone assistedguidance region of claim 2, further comprising a step of providingstimulation to an animal through an animal stimulation apparatusresponsive to a location of said animal within at least one of said safezone, first zone, and second zone.
 4. The method of defining individualzones within a multi-zone assisted guidance region of claim 1, furthercomprising a step of electronically associating at least two adjacentones of said individual zones each with a unique animal stimulation, afirst one of said at least two adjacent ones of said individual zoneunique animal stimulations acting through a different neurologicalaccess channel than a second one of said at least two adjacent ones ofsaid individual zone unique animal stimulations.
 5. The method ofdefining individual zones within a multi-zone assisted guidance regionof claim 4, wherein said associated unique animal stimulation isselected from a group of auditory stimulation, vibratory stimulation,and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.
 6. The method ofdefining individual zones within a multi-zone assisted guidance regionof claim 5, wherein said auditory stimulation is electrically associatedwith said safe zone.
 7. The method of defining individual zones within amulti-zone assisted guidance region of claim 5, wherein said vibratorystimulation is electrically associated with said first zone.
 8. Themethod of defining individual zones within a multi-zone assistedguidance region of claim 5, wherein said transcutaneous electrical nervestimulation is electrically associated with said second zone.
 9. Themethod of defining individual zones within a multi-zone assistedguidance region of claim 5, wherein an electrical impulse stimulation iselectrically associated with said perimeter.
 10. The method of definingindividual zones within a multi-zone assisted guidance region of claim4, wherein said unique animal stimulations comprise non-aversivestimulation.
 11. The method of defining individual zones within amulti-zone assisted guidance region of claim 1, further comprising astep of associating each one of said individual zones with a uniqueanimal stimulation that acts through a different neurological accesschannel than any other ones of said unique animal stimulations of saidindividual zones.